In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

black-and-white footage shot inside the Canterbury Coal mine and still photographs of the wash house. The film sequencesfocus on a shiftchange, with miners entering and disappearing into the mine. The continuous loop runs through a steel conveyor (1x 5 x 28 ft) and is projected onto a free-standing frame of glass. A second afterimage hovers on the wall behind the first screen. WHAT DIDJACKIE SAY? Joseph Wilson, 319 A Street, Boston, MA 02210, U.S.A. E-mail: . WhatDidJackie Say?is an installation that explores the motivation that causedJohn Kennedy,Jr., to salute the casket at his father’s funeral in 1963. The inspiration for this installation came from a conversationI had with one of thejournalists who covered the Kennedysbefore, during and after the assassination.The image ofJohn,Jr., saluting came up during this conversation . The image remained in my memory as American iconography r e p resentativeof that time. Thejournalist doubted that the Syear-oldcould comprehend such an action or be motivated to do it on his own. The more I thought about the salute, the more I questioned its intent. In the footage of the saluting child, it is obvious thatJackie indeed directed him to do it. What was her motivation in doing this?DidJohn,Jr., understand the situation at hand? For whom was the salute intended? Outside of the public arena, would the same motivation exist?What didJackie say? The large-scaleinstallationwas first shown at Mobius in Boston, Massachusetts . Throughout the piece I repeat the image of the salute in various forms and media while exaggerating the gesture to be questioned by the viewer. The main structure of the installation is a hallway measuring 27 x 8 X 8 ft constructed with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe and aluminumjoints. There is also a 10-ftsquare “livingroom” attached to the left side of the main hallway fabricated from the same materials. The entire structure is covered with cotton muslin stretched over the pipe and held in place with Velcro. Eight large, black silhouettes of the saluting image ofJohn,Jr., line both sides of the hallway. Halfway down the left side of the hallway is a glass windowframe suspended from the ceiling. The living Fig. 3.JosephW i son ,detail from the installation What didJackie Say?showing the manymonitors that were controlledby motion detectors.The piece is shown here as it was installedat Mobiusin Boston in 1991. room can be viewed only through this window. At the end of the hallway are 20 black-and-white and color televisions piled on both sides of another structure suspending two smaller televisions (Fig. 3). As the viewer enters the hallway, a motion detector triggers the play of a sound environment comprised of news reports of the assassination mixed with the sound of a mother’s heartbeat recorded through a womb. Details of photographs from the “Camelot”era project along the right wall. Eyes, ears and hands follow each other-stripped of their origins. Through the glasswindow located in the middle of the left wall is seen a living -roomsetting, vintage 1963-chair, end tables,and a television with artifacts from this era. I felt that an accuraterep resentation of the settingwhere most people experienced the funeral was an important element in the piece. A television , the only light source in the room, illuminatesnewspaper headlines of the assassination lying on the coffee table. Hangingfrom the ceiling are 1008-in silhouettesofJohn,Jr., saluting an image made of black metal screen.They are suspended at different heightsand scattered throughout the room. The screens resemble static emanatingfrom the television and floatingin the air-intermittently emulatingthe saluting image. As viewers reach the end of the hallway , their motion triggers the stacksof televisions.I felt that the televisionsremaining idle until the viewer reached this point accentuated other parts of the installation. I used televisionsthat were manufactured in the late 1950sup to the present in order to depict the generations to follow that would experience the event through television. In the middle of the piles of televisionsis a structure consistingof a 4x2ft base skirted in white, pleated fabric. Ascendingfrom the base are 17white columns that arch at opposing 60’ angles and support two small televisions . Twenty...

pdf

Share